Northern Europe tour operators merge

Two leading tour operators specialising in Northern Europe are merging and are busy assimilating their operations, their overall brand and their graphic identity.

Via Hansa, a tour operator, DMC, hospitality service provider and lifestyle company, operates in a vast geographical area, from Scandinavia to the Baltic countries, Russia, Mongolia and China.

Founded in Riga, Latvia, almost three decades ago by Danish businessman Hans-Henrik Kjølby, Via Hansa has grown to become an inbound leisure operation with sales and service offices in Warsaw, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Moscow, Kiev, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Ulaanbaatar and Shanghai.

It is now merging with Borealis Destination Management, which operates in the areas of tourism, MICE and cruise ground handling in the Nordic countries, Baltics and Russia.

Borealis was founded by Hans Aldal and Marcella Infantino, with its head office in Copenhagen and a representative office in Stockholm.

Streamlining
With a combined workforce of over 300 people, the newly named Via Hansa & Borealis is streamlining its operational and financial procedures, coordinating purchasing, sales and marketing, and investing together in a new technological platform.

A new graphic identity will be introduced throughout the company from February 1.

The company says that the merger will create the biggest regional tour operator and destination management company in Northern Europe, its tourism specialists representing more than 30 different nationalities.

It will be offering services for the various segments of the tourism industry, for leisure travellers and for conferences and incentives across Scandinavia, Iceland, Finland, Russia, the Baltics, Poland, Germany and beyond.

Changes in organisational and operational structures will take place throughout 2018, a process the company says will be carried out “carefully, with concern for maintaining and developing the strongest possible relations with all customers while keeping a strong focus on service for guests”.